Drinking cup or container



Filed April 21,' 1927 2 Sheesf-Sheet April 14, 1931. s. P. JANNINGS DRINKING CUP OR CONTAINER Filed April 2l, 1927 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 tainerin normal folded condition;

Patented Apr. 14, 1931 UNITED STATES vPATENT OFFICE STEPHEN' P. JANNIN'GS, 0F ST. LOUIS,YMISSVOURI, ASSIGNQR OF ONE-HALF T0 JAMES A.

MOSLEY, 0F JENNINGS, MISSOURI DRINKING CUP 0R CONTAINER Application mea April a1,` 1927. serial No. 185,591.

This invention relates to drinking cups or containers. It has for'its objects to produce a simple, inexpensive and practical, one-piece,`

occupy minimum space in storage or in 'a' dispensing device, and being conveniently openedfor use, yet possessing considerable' in- 10 herent rigidity andstability of structure; to

provide the article with a substantial handle portion by which it can be conveniently held in the hand in use; and to attain certain advantages as will hereinafter more fully appear.

The novel one-piecestructure, in the general form and arrangement of the article, and in the parts and combinations and arrangements of'L4 parts, all as hereinafter described and afterwards pointed out with particularity in the appended claims.

Y Inr the accompan drawings forming part of this speci cation and illustratingl practical embodiments of the invention,-

Figure 1 is a perspective view of the cup `or container in opened condition and ready for use; A,

Figure 2 is a top plan view thereof; Figure 3 is a side elevation of the same; Figure lis an edge view of the cup or con- Figure 5 is a plan view of the blank from which the cup or container shown in Figures V1,2 and 3 is formed;

Figure 6 is a similar, view ofa modification of the blank from which the cup or container may be forme n Figure 7 is a top plan view ofthe cup or container as produced from the blank illustrated in Figure 6;

Figure 8 is a sideelevation of the latter; Figure is a plan view of-a further modii cation of the blank from which the cupor container may be formed; ,Figure 10 is a top plan view of the cup oi' container as produced from the blank iJlustrated in Figure 9;

igure 11 is a side elevation of the latter; an Y invention consists primarily in the Figure 12 is a schematic perspective view illustrating the manner of folding each of the several blanks shown in Figures 5, 6 and 9 of the drawings.

Generally stated, the preferred form of the cup or container asshown in the drawings, when in opened condition and ready for use, comprises' a four-sided, tapered and upwardly flaring body or receptacle portion A of substantially pyramidal shape, with an integral; substantially fan-shape or sector-like handle extension B.

The article may be formed from a single material'possessing the requisite sanitary and liquid-proof qualities together with flexibility and a certain degree of stiiness, the blank bein originally a disk-like sheet of either circuglar or polygonal form, as will be presently described.

In practice, it is preferable to produce the cup or contalner from pre-paraflined paper or relatively light weight cardboard, or by treating it, after formation, with paraine or other suitable moisture-proofing substance, as may be found the morepracticable in manufacture.

The cup or container, as illustrated in Figures 1 to 3 inclusive, of the drawings, 1s formed from a circular blank, which latter is illustrated in Figure 5. As shown, this blank is divided into eight equal sectors which are respectively numbered l to 8, inclusive, the blank -being creased or scored along the radial lines 1a to 8,'inclusive, runnin from its center to its margin, and on whic lines the blank is folded in forming the article.

In folding the blank the creases 1, 3, 6a and 8, are pressed inward towards each other, and the creasesV 2, 4, 5? and 7, are pressed outward, as best shown in F1 re 12 of the drawings. The folds comprising the sectors 5, 6, 7 and 8, are then pressed :Hat-

torsj, 6,A 7 and 8, are preferably cemented firmly together in the manufacture of the cup or container. Obviously, this may be .accomplished by the application of a special adf hesive, or as has been found' very practical,

the paraliine or other liquid-proofing substance with which the paper or constituent material of the article is treated may be "uti-` lized for the purpose, particularly when the 10 material is treated after the creasmg and foldingpopera'tions on the blank have been performed,'in which case, the said handle folds of' the blank may be held under compression until the'paraflin'e or other substance Instead of making the blank circular, as.

just described, it may, obviously, be fmade polygonal' and, preferably, octagonal as shown in Figure 6 of thedrawings. In this 30 modification the lines of thecreasesexitend diagonally from the marginal corners of p the blank'and intersect each-other at the center of the blank.` The resultant cup or container produced fr m this blank is substantially identical'wit that produced from the circular' blank as herein rst described, leX.- cept'that, in the modification, the edges of the side walls, at the mouth ofthe cup or container, are straight as shown in Figures 4o 7 and 8,-whereas,. in the larticle shown in Figures 1 to 3, inclusive, the edges are arcuate.

- The structure may be further modified as illustrated in Figures 9 to 11, inclusive, of the drawings. In this modification the sectors 1, 2, 3 and 4, are each provided Withmargi-` nal flaps or extensions l", 2b, 3b and 4b, re-v spectively, which are adapted'to be folded over upon .the walls Aof the receptacle .portion A of the cup or container, preferably on the' outer face thereof, as best shown in Figure 11, whereby to reinforce the edge por# tions of the article and to make the edges smooth, so as not to cut the lips, as might accidentallyoccur from the raw edges of thev 55. blank as originally cut', when drinking from the cup., y

v The blank may also be reinforced at its center by the a plication thereto ofv a piece of fabric 9, pre erably cemented on its outer i619 face A,(seef Figure 9A), so that the pointed end ,Q portion' of the cup or container will be ma- "terially strengthened, at. which place the constituent material of the cup or container is'lmost liable to breakage owing to the intersection of theI several creases of the blank.

whilev the banks f the Several 'media cations, as illustrated in the drawings, are

divided into eight equal sectors so as to produce the substantiallyv pyramidal, fourwalled cup or. container, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to such form and arrangement, but that it admits of considerable further modification within its spirit and scope as defined by the appended claims, for it comprehends,

broadly, the productionof a cup or con-- tainer, ofpyramidal orlany other shape, from a` single-piece blank'of circular form or oneof a regular polygonal shape, said blank being divided into a lplurality of sectors 'which are folded together to constitute a handle member for the cup or container, and the receptacle portion of the cu or container being preferably foldable an col.- lapsible but not necessarily so. s ple, the original blank may be hexagonal, in-

stead of octagonal as shown, and it may be divided into six equal sectors, four of which mayconstitutethe receptacle portion of the cup or container, and the other two thereof folded together to constitute the handle member, in which case-the receptacle portion will, of course, be substantially pyramidal. So, too, 4the two sectors which comprise thel handle member may be re-divided into two halves each and the ,four smaller sectors thus produced will obviously'produce a handle member bf four thicknesses of materialbut just onehalf thesize of the two thickness handle yet being of ample propor- For examf tions for holding the cup or container conl veniently between the thumb'and foreiin er of vones hand. This may also be done with the circular blank shownin Figure 5 o'f the drawings or with the octagonal blank shown in Figures 6 and 9, in which cases the handle sectorsj, 6, 7 and 8, may each be divided in -v half-so as to produce eight smaller sectors of equal size, which, of course, when folded iatwise together, produce a` handle memberof eight thicknesses of material.

It is further obvious that the several blanks may be creasedA and divided into sectors only suicient for the production of the handle member of the cup or container, and the remainder thereof left uncreased, in

which case, the receptacle portion of the cup or container will Abe of conical instead of the receptacle portion thereof, the handle member, however, may be readily. flded over upon the body, and 4several of the arti# cles may be nested the one within the other 1`25 for while that may b e the ideal way to store pyramidal shape. While this `form of the article is not foldable andcollapsible asto 5 and kept in collapsed con 'tion inV storage, 130

and dispense them, they may, in some cases, be nested and stacked as just above setforth in connection with the conical form.

What is claimed is: 1. A folding paper cup or container comprising a disk-like blank, said blank being divided into eight equal trian ula-r sectors and being scored on the divi 'ng lines of said sectors radiating from the center to the margin of the blank, the scoring being alternately from opposite faces of the blank, whereby, in foldlng the blank, four adjoining sectors are brought normallyflatwise together and the four other sectors are brought into the same relation to each other, the one set of four sectors, when opened from their atwise folded condition, constituting the walls of a pyramidal receptacle, and the other set of sectors being cemented together throughout and constituting a four-plyhandle member and liquid-tight closure for one corner of the receptacle.

2. A folding paper cup or container comprising a disk-like blank, said blanky being divided throughout into triangular sectors by'folding it along lines radiating from center to margin of the blank, four ad'oining equal sectors constituting a collapsible pyramidal receptacle portion, the walls of which are normally folded atwise together, two of the walls being folded co-operatively inward between vthe other two walls, and the remainder of the sectors being folded and cemented atwise together throu hout and constituting an integral multi-py handle member and liquid-tight closure for one corner of the receptacle. i

' STEPHEN P. JANNINGS. 

